Homeland security chief defends allowing short knives on planes

The chief of the nation’s department of homeland security is defending the Obama administration’s surprise decision to allow passengers to resume carrying short knives onto passenger airlines.

Janet Napolitano told reporters at a press breakfast Tuesday that the Transportation Security Administration has made “the right decision from a security standpoint” to permit passengers to resume carrying small knives onto aircraft for the first time since 19 hijackers used box cutters to kill aircraft crew members to seize control of the four aircraft involved in the 9/11 attacks.

“We’re trying to prevent a bomb getting on the plane,” Napolitano explained. “If you’re talking about a small knife there are already things on a plane that somebody can convert into a small sharp object.”

The Obama administration says the shift to a so-called “risk-based” assessment of security threats led to the decision to allow knives back on planes.

But Napolitano, a politically savvy former two-term governor of Arizona, faulted her department for failing to carry out greater “public outreach” before the TSA decision was announced.

“From the security standpoint it was the right decision,” said Napolitano, a former state attorney general. “I think where we could have done better quite frankly was a little more legislative and public outreach before we announced the decision to try to give it a softer landing.”

The TSA announced that beginning April 25 it will permit passengers to carry onboard knives shorter than 2.36 inches and less than half an inch wide. The knives cannot have a locked blade or molded grip. Sports equipment such as lacrosse sticks, hockey sticks and ski poles also will be allowed on planes.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, called the TSA plan “foolhardy” and introduced legislation to roll back the change.